For Richer, For Poorer: A Love Affair with Poker

For Richer For Poorer A Love Affair with Poker In September Victoria Coren won a million dollars on the European Poker Tour In her long awaited memoir she tells the story of that victory but also of a year obsession with the game It is

Title: For Richer, For Poorer: A Love Affair with Poker

Author: Victoria Coren

ISBN: 9781847672919

Page: 126

Format: Hardcover

In September 2006, Victoria Coren won a million dollars on the European Poker Tour In her long awaited memoir, she tells the story of that victory, but also of a 20 year obsession with the game It is a journey which has taken Coren from a secret culture of illegal cash games to the high stakes glamour of Las Vegas and Monte Carlo, and brought with it friendship, laughterIn September 2006, Victoria Coren won a million dollars on the European Poker Tour In her long awaited memoir, she tells the story of that victory, but also of a 20 year obsession with the game It is a journey which has taken Coren from a secret culture of illegal cash games to the high stakes glamour of Las Vegas and Monte Carlo, and brought with it friendship, laughter, and money, but also loneliness, heartbreak, and defeat With disarming honesty, Coren lays all of this bare For Richer, For Poorer also tells the story of the poker revolution How did this cult card game, populated by a small community of colorful and eccentric players, move from the back streets to the mainstream in a few short years It is a fascinating story from a trusted insider.

One thought on “For Richer, For Poorer: A Love Affair with Poker”

In real life, in addition to The Laws and The Romance and The Fanfic and Veep [my current show of choice], I am All About Poker. I have recently moved to a country with no casinos and certainly no card rooms. Back in Blighty, I played live poker several times a week at the same casino. The same dealers and valets and players. The same faces and the same personalities. All the same jokes. The same stories. The rhythmic shuffle of the deck, the symphony of riffling chips. I miss it. I miss everyth [...]

Let's face it, there are a lot of rubbish poker books out there. I've wasted hard-won cash on some real stinkers, and have come to view certain types of titles with a degree of caution. Poker players prone to hyperbole? Perish the thought.The promise of 'secrets' or a 'system' is a red flag (although 'super-system' is okay provided it's written by Doyle Brunson). So too is the suggestion that you can 'earn a living' or somehow 'beat the odds' (each being, as far as I'm concerned, the functional [...]

I've always liked Victoria Coren, I find her classy, witty and funny, and her book is no exception. I like playing cards, too--well, not actually playing with the cards, but the cards themselves (I may have taken on my drunken dad and uncles in a few games as a kid and cleaned house, but I have since completely forgotten how to play any game requiring more skill than blackjack or computer-based games that tell you what the good tricks are or what cards you can play). So, at the very least, I can [...]

I have read a lot of poker books and until now I have been most unsatisfied with the "personal memoir" style of poker book. Poker players are a slippery bunch and getting one to truly open up in a book seems to be asking the impossible. As a result there are dozens of biographies of poker personalities that are utterly forgettable. Victoria Coren's recent book, "For Richer, For Poorer" blows the doors off any other poker biography on the market. Coren is intelligent, eloquent and humorous, and m [...]

I don't really know how poker works, but not knowing my rivers from my big blinds didn't stop me from enjoying this book. I guess that's because it's one of those trick books, which pretends it's about one thing (poker) but is actually about another (geeky, sort-of-daddy's-girl wants to find somewhere where she belongs and does so in an unlikely place). As a geeky, sort-of-daddy's-girl myself, I completely understand.The internal monologues covering Coren's hands in her triumphant 2006 EPT title [...]

Partly a biography, partly a treatise on modern poker, and partly the story of how Victoria Coren became the first female million-dollar-winner of the European Poker Tour (she's since gone on to win it a second time), this is one of the most readable books about a complex subject I've ever read.Part of that is the chatty, witty writing style and, whilst it doesn't hold your hand in explaining the exotic-sounding poker terms and expressions, the book is still completely clear. This is because it [...]

I like Victoria Coren when I see her on the telly. I follow her on twitter because she's witty and clever but still seems down to earth. So, even though I know nothing about poker, I thought I'd give her poker autobiography a go. It's a mixture of "how I fell in love with poker and the things that were going on in my life" and "how I became the first woman to win the European Poker Tour", with the autobiographical stuff making up the bulk of each chapter and then an analysis of that tournament w [...]

A very, very good memoir. Superbly structured, with Coren's final table big win scattered through the book as she tells the story of a privately educated outsider deep within the world of poker. The poker talk is excellent, the sickness of gambling, the attraction, the emptiness are all beautifully and amusingly told. When I read the book I had a nagging doubt that an "English rose" like Coren would never fall into this lifestyle. I also thought no English rose would discuss her broken hearts wi [...]

Loved. this. book. An extremely interesting account of the life of a poker player. Vicky's love of the game, the players, and probably least of all, the money make for a compulsively readable story full of funny, heart-warming and sometimes heart-breaking anecdotes. She recounts the game as one of logic, joy, comfort, and reward; the constant in her life of ups and downs. A truly gripping glimpse into the life of a poker champion - one might even call it """A REAL PAGE-TURNER""".

It was okay. I didn't really have any great expectation and I guess after finishing it I can see why. I didn't not enjoy it, but it didn't hit the spot either. I enjoyed the poker hand analyses, and thought that those were quite valuable. A couple of times the writing went way over my head. Maybe its because I'm not from the same country or maybe its because I'm stupid, but overall for me the book was average.

Many successful poker players have tried their hand at writing, but I've yet to find another who writes with the elegance of Victoria Coren. Her memoir is centered around her lifelong relationship with poker, but it's much more love story than strategy guide. This book will make you feel as though Victoria could be your closest friend, if your closest friend had made over a million dollars playing poker and was a world class writer.

This was enjoyable - appealing in that I was compelled to keep reading more by the charm/humour of the writing than by the subject of 'poker'. Though she can come over a bit 'hit and miss' on TV at times, Coren's writing was very consistent and witty - as an account of only a certain aspect of her life, it stayed quite light and moved quite quickly, and was ultimately readable as a consequence.

I was captivated by this book. Coren gives us a rich look into the world of poker as it developed from a Southern outlaw activity to a giant online industry, told in an extremely personable style. Poker becomes a way of life for her and her friends, with thrilling highs and depressing lows.

Given how depressing parts of the story Coren tells are, this book is surprisingly uplifting and life-affirming. Great woman, great book. I knew almost negative amounts about poker before reading FRFP, but read it because I love to hear Coren talk and tell stories. I wasn't disappointed. And now I need to go learn poker.

I liked this book, despite the occasional detailed descriptions of poker games that went right over my head. I liked the fact that Coren is mostly drawn to the game because it represents (or represented) an underworld full of strange, damaged, fragile people. Although Coren is down to earth and funny, and passionate about and excited by poker, the book also explores the sadness and nostalgia that it triggers. These were probably my favourite bits. She describes a glorious fortnight in Vegas as f [...]

I'd always quite liked the idea of this book. I know little about poker, but I find it intriguing, and I've enjoyed Victoria Coren's writing in the past. Honestly, though, I never expected to enjoy this as much as I did. Her absolute love of the game and its history comes through on every page. It covers an interesting time for poker, since as the book starts it's still a game kept broadly within the confines of casinos, the odd seedy club and a few home games, but by the end of the book, it's o [...]

From early games where she was fleeced by her elder brother, to the swankiest of French casinos via the dazzling lights of Vegas and games in dodgy boozers before coming home to the comforting security of Tuesday games at The Vic, Victoria Coren has mapped out her life in poker. It is a looking glass world, inhabited by characters going by names like Devilfish, J.Q. and The Elegance, who bandy words like big blinds, buttons and flops and are always looking for the turn of the final river card th [...]

Who is Victoria Coren ? A young lady who wrote an amazing book about Poker ? Not only. Indeed she is a really good writer. But in the same time she is a member of Team Pokerstars Pro! Hence she knows what she’s talking aboutThis book can be read without any knowledge of the game (you can find the rules in the last pages) but would be much more appreciated by poker players, or at least people who know how to play. It tells the story of a kid who grew up with the game, it tells a love story betw [...]

I should have guessed that the book would be predominantly about poker which does not interest me, I am however interested in Victoria Coren. I wanted to know why she got into gambling and she is very open about her reasons which include a low self-esteem and a family history which included a number of gamblers, it appeared to be in her blood. However, although the book was very well written with a lovely, wry sense of humour and witty turn of praise, there were too many hands of cards described [...]

I am only passingly familiar with poker, and the argot in which it is conducted by high-level players, but this was nonetheless an entrancing read which made me laugh in public at several points. The author captures how the reputation of poker has changed in only a very short time, by charting her own journey from admiring amateur through to victory at the European Poker Tour in London in 2006, as the first woman to win a title in the EPT. Perhaps the best thing about this book is Coren Mitchell [...]

I am only passingly familiar with poker, and the argot in which it is conducted by high-level players, but this was nonetheless an entrancing read which made me laugh in public at several points. The author captures how the reputation of poker has changed in only a very short time, by charting her own journey from admiring amateur through to victory at the European Poker Tour in London in 2006, as the first woman to win a title in the EPT.Perhaps the best thing about this book is Coren Mitchell' [...]

At first I wasn't sure if I was really going to get much out of this book, because I know absolutely nothing about poker, and in the beginning, Victoria Coren doesn't really make allowances for beginners in that field. However, this turned out to be the right approach: I learned far more about poker from this immersion technique than I suspect I would've done from gentle hand-holding. More to the point, this is so much more than just a poker book: while Coren does a brilliant job of capturing th [...]

A terrific book about becoming a poker player (and she's a good one, a winner of a European Poker Tour event in London for a million pounds--or dollars?). Coren is a wonderful writer (her poker column in one of the London newspapers is excellent), and she captures the slightly seedy/illicit appeal of the game. I feel I should use a poker-related ranking system instead of stars; if Al Alvarez's book "The Biggest Game in Town" is a royal flush, "For Richer, For Poorer" is at least a full house (AA [...]

Best poker book I've ever read - even if you didn't know much about the game it would still be entertaining. Love how she describes it as her love affair with the game, as I've always thought there's something very romantic about card games. The feeling of being intimidated by casinos but wanting to be a part of them is something that most gamblers feel to begin with, but few poker memoirs admit it! A cracking read.